LIEBERMAN'S GONE OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE

Bill CurryTHE HARTFORD COURANT

In 2006, Joe Lieberman vowed to help elect a Democratic president in 2008. Three weeks ago, he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that by supporting John McCain he didn't break his word because his party has changed so much since John Kennedy.

A lot has changed since 1960 - hey, we've been to the moon - but it's hard to see how that relieves one of the duty to keep a promise made in 2006. Joe says the Democrats have been taken over by "a small group on the left . . . that is basically, very, very hyper-partisan."

Funny thing, the party will soon be taken over by one of two people: Barack Obama, who as a freshman so admired Joe he asked him to be his mentor; or Hillary Clinton, who has won respect on the Armed Services Committee and elsewhere by reaching across party lines and who is well liked by the moderate Democratic Leadership Council Joe once headed.

Unless he's off his rocker, Joe actually doesn't think Obama and Clinton are extremists or that one party is more partisan than the other. What gives? To see what Joe's up to, you should catch him not on ABC but on Fox, where he really lets his hair down.

Joe recently told Fox that Democrats opposing the war suffer from "their warped way of thinking . . . that America is the problem." That isn't new stuff; Joe bought himself his 2006 primary not by backing the war but by attacking the patriotism of those who didn't. But in a later Fox radio interview he did break new ground. Asked if Barack Obama was "a Marxist," Joe replied:

"Well you know, that's a good question . . . I will tell you that during this campaign I've learned some things about him, about the kind of environment from which he came ideologically . . . I'd hesitate to say he's a Marxist but he's got some positions that are far to the left of me and I think mainstream America."

Welcome to Joe Lieberman, the 2008 edition. Angling for a star turn with the Republicans - convention keynoter, defense secretary, vice president - he has not only deserted his old party but set fire to it on the way out.

And all those speeches praising bipartisanship and calling for a new tone in politics? As Joe makes his bones savaging old friends, his sanctimony is stripped bare. It's the worst sort of politics, from a guy who once made us believe he wanted better.

What Lieberman's doing isn't just negative politics but a special strain seen first in the turbulent late '60s, when Richard Nixon rode his "silent majority" into the White House. It arose then out of deep social conflicts at about the time government stopped standing up for the middle class. It's a substitute for the kind of real politics and debate one might find in a healthier democracy.

Pundits call what Nixon invented and Karl Rove perfected "culture wars." They are fought over real issues: guns, gay marriage, abortion, religion. A legitimate disagreement turns into a phony culture war when a politician uses it to divide people into warring camps in order to demonize and marginalize his opposition. Thus Lieberman says Obama has a "warped way of thinking," is "far from the mainstream," perhaps even "a Marxist."

Joe has plenty of company. In Wednesday's Democratic debate, a woman asked Obama if he loves the flag. She'd heard reports to the contrary. Hillary Clinton, though she didn't hit as hard or low as Lieberman, landed some unfair punches. She says Republicans will do it in the fall. She should let them.

The good news about the culture wars is that every year fewer people enlist. In real life, we like each other. In real life, the God-fearing and the gun-loving date and dine the God-loving and the gun-fearing, and even turn up in each other's families.

Some say baby boomers started the culture wars way back in the '60s. I say it's time for a truce. Let old resentments die. Yes, we Democrats had a better time in college. You Republicans have made more money ever since. Why not call it even and have a beer?

Meanwhile I'll oppose McCain, not for being un-American or even for hanging out with Lieberman, but because we disagree. America's in trouble. If we let grasping politicians pull us further apart we'll only get in deeper.

Bill Curry, former counselor to President Bill Clinton, was the Democratic nominee for governor twice. His column appears Sundays on the Other Opinion page. He can be reached at billcurryct@gmail.com.